Feather issues

[fluffybuttfarmstead]

I have a mixed flock with 14 female chickens and 2 roosters and 2 Guinea hens. Last year I noticed that several of my hands were having issues with feather loss, so I separated my guineas (at the time, I have five, four female, and one male) into a smaller chicken tractor. At the time I had no roosters. The feather loss seem to get better, so I assumed it was the male guinea hen that was mating them aggressively. When I saw that this might be the issue, I brought the mail and two of the more aggressive, guinea hens to a friend of mine‘s ranch. They’re living their days as happy free range guineas, I returned the other two guineas to the larger coop witches 8 x 10 and a 20 x 20 run. I purchased six more straight, run chickens, and of the three that survived, there were two roosters. The rooster, and the one chick that survived are Americanas. Fast forward eight months, I noticed feather lost in five of my girls, so I immediately moved them to the chicken tractor, it has a 4 x 4 roost, and an 8 x 10 run that I can move around the yard. Three of my girls started getting her feathers back and looking very good, I reintroduced two of them to the coop, and they are doing very well. I left three in the smaller coop for heat because we were becoming close to the colder months. I noticed that one of the chickens still had bald spots, and another. One of them was being bullied, so I removed the fully feathered gray chicken and put her back in the larger coop. The one who is being bullied, is not being bullied anymore, but the one with the missing feathers looks like she’s losing more feathers. I have checked for mites and lice, and she doesn’t have any pustules around her pores. Her skin is red, and looks irritated. I don’t wanna leave her alone in the coop, And the other chicken, that’s with her seems to be my roosters favorite, and when he’s done with her, she just lays there and twitches, so I don’t wanna put her back in the coop until I make a bachelor pad for the roosters. They’re getting fatter fixer feed from Pullen. Lay an egg daily or every other day, depending on how cold it is. Any ideas? Will send pictures when I get down to the house

 

[fluffycrow]

Is there a chance the once bullied hen is pecking on the forming feathers of the other hen?

 

[fluffybuttfarmstead]

 

[fluffycrow]

Yep, it definitely looks like someone's been picking at them feathers!

 

[fluffybuttfarmstead]

Is there a chance the once bullied hen is pecking on the forming feathers of the other hen?

I doubt it, the black and white speckled one is very timid, and will literally run away from the other chickens.

 

[fluffybuttfarmstead]

I have a mixed flock with 14 female chickens and 2 roosters and 2 Guinea hens. Last year I noticed that several of my hens were having issues with feather loss, so I separated my guineas (at the time, I had five, four female, and one male) into a smaller chicken tractor. At the time I had no other roosters. The feather loss seemEd to get better, so I assumed it was the male guinea hen that was mating them aggressively. When I saw that this might be the issue, I brought the male and two of the more aggressive, guinea hens to a friends ranch. They’re living their days as happy free range guineas, I returned the other two guineas to the larger coop witch is 8 x 10 and a 20 x 20 run. I purchased six more straight run chickens, and of the three that survived, there were two roosters, and one pulley. The roosters and the one chick that survived are Americanas. Fast forward eight months, I noticed feather loss in five of my girls, so I immediately moved them to the chicken tractor, it has a 4 x 4 roost, and an 8 x 10 run that I can move around the yard. Three of my girls started getting their feathers back and looking very good, I reintroduced two of them to the coop, and they are doing very well. I left three in the smaller coop for heat because we were close to colder weather . I noticed that one of the chickens still had bald spots, and another. One of them was being bullied, so I removed the fully feathered gray chicken and put her back in the larger coop. The one who is being bullied, is not being bullied anymore, but the one with the missing feathers looks like she’s losing more feathers. I have checked for mites and lice, and she doesn’t have any pustules around her pores. Her skin is red, and looks irritated. I don’t wanna leave her alone in the coop, And the other chicken, that’s with her seems to be my roosters favorite, and when he’s done with her, she just lays there and twitches, so I don’t wanna put her back in the coop until I make a bachelor pad for the roosters. They’re getting fEsther fixer feed from poulon . they lay an egg daily or every other day, depending on how cold it is. Any ideas? Will send pictures when I get down to the house.

I hate spellcheck btw.

 

[fluffycrow]

This could originally be the work of a rooster, when they overrated the hens they might cause feather damage on the wings and on top of the head right behind the comb, so that's where it probably started. But really any hen that gets the taste for blood will peck at newly forming feathers

 

[fluffybuttfarmstead]

Yep, it definitely looks like someone's been picking at them feathers!

Could she be doing it herself? Like a nervous thing?

 

[fluffycrow]

Not likely

 

[fluffybuttfarmstead]

This could originally be the work of a rooster, when they overrated the hens they might cause feather damage on the wings and on top of the head right behind the comb, so that's where it probably started. But really any hen that gets the taste for blood will peck at newly forming feathers

Any suggestions on how to keep them safe? I don’t want to completely isolate them both, and really have no way to do so until I can build another trauma coop this spring, when I am building my broiler tractors and m Bachelor pad